Sunday, 26 May 2013

During the weekly comics club we trailed off to a local charity shop (Oxfam Books and Music in St Albans). It's actually a pretty groovy place and I always find something of interest.

This week along with a 1980 Blake's 7 UK Annual I found a copy of Fantasy Advertiser (FA) issue 101 from April 1988.

It has some great inteviews and related adverts and stuff that brings it all back.

But what was of real interest was the March 1988 sales chharts from Comics Showcase in London. Now sadly long gone it was a great shop and right at the centre of the creative boom that was going on at the time (those that read this blog know of my love for UKCAC at the time).

So I thought you might find it interesting to see the sales figures from back then. they actually make interesting reading, for example there is a hardback at number 2! It also shows that the mainly reprint Classic X-Men is higher than New Mutants. No Avengers but we get Solo Avengers? No Batman? No Spider-Man?

Sadly they don't give issue numbers (sorry about that folks).

1. Viz.

2. The Watchmen hardback collection.

3. Marshall Law.

4. X-Men.

5. Blackhawk

( Edtor's note - think that should have an 's' on the end).

6. Shadow - Graphic Novel.

7. X-Factor.

8. Hellblaiser.

9. Slver Surfer.

10. Blood.

11. Justice League International.

12. Classic X-Men.

13. New Mutants.

14. Swamp Thing.

15. Love and Rockets.

16. Shadow.

17. Solo Avengers.

18. Green Arrow.

19. Lone Wolf and Cub.

20. Superman.

And just for fun here are a couple of adverts from back in those heady days of glory.

Saturday, 4 May 2013

Free Comic Book Day was the biggest so far at my LCS. Chaos City Comics in St Albans (www.chaoscitycomics.com) had a line almost out to the main road by 9.30am this morning. It seems that the UK is really getting hold of this event.

The shop was like the first day of the Harrod's New Year Sale. The staff (Derek, Luke and James) did some sterling work throughout the day (and especially at the start when it was like a rugby scrum). Great to see a lot of families who were there. Over the last year there hae been a lot of younger readers picking up books and the future looks promising.

There were some great titles for all ages and I limited myself to the books I wanted and the books I was getting for some friends and their kids. (If only some other people thought the same way.) I actually saw someone with so many books he was complaining that he wouldn't be able to carry them home (two of each - at least - bad form. You know who you are.) I managed to get the books I was after and pretty chuffed with them.

After about an hour the crowd begn to fade (as had most of the free books) and I realised that there was a comics artist who had popped in. Sheldon Goh (www.sheldongoh.com ) is a comics artist from Malaysia visiting the great St Albans with his family. A great guy who rolled his sleeves up and just cracked on with some sketching. Luckily I was the first and got to spend some time chatting to him and his family. Sheldon is currently working on Wonderland for Zenescope Comics. He also has worked on Grimm Fairy Tales and a great project he was telling me about called 'Medi Kidz' that is a comics series that helps children deal with illnesses (superb idea). I urge you to check out his page, his commissions are awesome.

Saturday is Comics Club as you all surely know and I met with three of my favourite artists. Matt Harrower, Marc Laming and Luke Ridge. Marc has his most recent issue of The Activity out this week from Image Comics and it's a fucking amazing book. The art is some of the best out there by a country mile and it zips along with pace and energy. If your LCS doesn't sell it you need to nag them until they place an order. Mine is signed - so suck it!

Once again. Free Comic Book Day proves that the LCS is at it's best when part of the wider comics community. Getting comics into new hands is always important if our hobby is to survive. Today shows that the future can be pretty bright.

Wednesday, 1 May 2013

Thanks to everyone for reading and reposting this blog during my Review Month Challenge.

It kind of started after I was let down by a few people who promised to write stuff for a proposed fanzine I was doing last year (currently on hiatus).

I ended up extending the deadline by three months and was no nearer some people finishing (and probably starting) pieces they were writing.

So I took the challenge and decided to write a review a day for the month of April. (Writing around 20,000 words by the end). Just to show them that you can balance 16 hour working days and some writing.